Was "Doki Doki Panic" Really Supposed to Have Been a Mario Game?

[ColecoFan1981]

I am getting conflicting stories as to whether or not Yume Koujou: Doki Doki Panic ("Dream Factory: Heart-Pounding Panic") - which was used as the basis for our market's Super Mario Bros. 2 - was ever supposed to have been a Mario game before Nintendo ultimately decided to go this route? Well, who's right and who's wrong?

~Ben

[sloan]

Doki Doki Panic was a quick fix for Nintendo when they realized that the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 was not what they wanted to release in the states. As can be seen on the SNES Super Mario All Stars game, Japanese SMB2 was highly similar to original SMB. Whether the original intent was for Doki Doki Panic to be SMB2 in USA is debatable, and a topic I have never seen discussed before.

[Superman]

Doki Doki Panic was not supposed to be a Mario Game. It was supposed to be just an ordinary game.

Then the heads at Nintendo thought that the Japanese version of Mario 2 was too difficult for other markets. So they created the alternate version of Mario 2, using Doki Doki Panic as the platform.

[buzz_n64]

Doki Doki Panic was meant to be its own game. I'm very glad Nintendo latter made it into a Mario game because very few people would have played it otherwise, and it is a superior game to the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 in my opinion.

[Greg2600]

Howard Phillips certainly deserves a lot of credit for that judgment (not to release SMB2 Japan in the West). I think it would have been a mistake because it would have been too similar to what was done in the previous years, where game sequels were far too similar to each other.

[TonyTheTiger]

Howard Phillips certainly deserves a lot of credit for that judgment (not to release SMB2 Japan in the West). I think it would have been a mistake because it would have been too similar to what was done in the previous years, where game sequels were far too similar to each other.

In a weird way, it's both too similar and too different. The Lost Levels is so difficult and meta that it sometimes borders on being a puzzle game. Its level design is like a subversion and deconstruction of the original Super Mario Bros. where it behaves in ways that undermine and contradict the rules established in the first game. It's like an elaborate Mario themed practical joke. Like the designers are sitting behind you laughing as they make you expect A but give you B. So not only do you have to deal with what's essentially a Kaizo hack, you also have to navigate all the tricks and essentially unlearn all the things you were trained to take for granted in the original. As much as I like the game, I think it was absolutely inappropriate to call it "Super Mario Bros. 2." It's like, "Hey, kids, you like Super Mario Bros.? Well get ready because we're about to seriously piss you off."

[ColecoFan1981]

However, some may regard "The Lost Levels" as being the "true" 2nd quest version of the original SMB, just as The Legend of Zelda I's 2nd quest is slightly different from the 1st quest. The actual SMB1's 2nd quest is only the 1st quest with increased difficulty.

~Ben

In a weird way, it's both too similar and too different. The Lost Levels is so difficult and meta that it sometimes borders on being a puzzle game. Its level design is like a subversion and deconstruction of the original Super Mario Bros. where it behaves in ways that undermine and contradict the rules established in the first game. It's like one big practical joke. Like the designers are sitting behind you laughing as they make you expect A but give you B. So not only do you have to deal with what's essentially a Kaizo hack, you have to navigate all the tricks and essentially unlearn all the things you were trained to take for granted in the original. As much as I like the game, I think it was absolutely inappropriate to call it "Super Mario Bros. 2." It's like, "Hey, kids, you like Super Mario Bros.? Well get ready because we're about to seriously piss you off."

[Immutable]

Doki Doki Panic was meant to be its own game. I'm very glad Nintendo latter made it into a Mario game because very few people would have played it otherwise, and it is a superior game to the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 in my opinion.

I'll second that opinion.

[Parodius Duh!]

I prefer Doki Doki Panic's crazy storyline and main character design over SMB 2/USA any day!

Doki Doki Panic was meant to be its own game and was created by Shigeru Miyamoto. In fact the main character (Name= Imajin) was sort of a mascot for Nintendo briefly and appears in a lot of Japanese ads side by side with Mario, shaking hands.

[joshnickerson]

A lot of the same team that worked on the Mario series also worked on Doki Doki Panic, so it's not hard to see the "Mario-ish" qualities in the original game.

[Parodius Duh!]

A lot of the same team that worked on the Mario series also worked on Doki Doki Panic, so it's not hard to see the "Mario-ish" qualities in the original game.

Shigeru Miyamoto created them both.

Heres a Doki Doki Panic commercial

http://youtu.be/BRD5vq0PAPk

[kupomogli]

Doki Doki Panic was meant to be its own game. I'm very glad Nintendo latter made it into a Mario game because very few people would have played it otherwise, and it is a superior game to the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 in my opinion.

This.

Japan had this idea that people in the west sucked ass at video games in comparison to Japanese gamers, and this may be true(see image below,) but kind of disrespectful when you think about it. A lot of games had changes that made them easier for the western market, although few(very few) were much harder in the west(Contra Hard Corps, Ninja Gaiden 3.)

[Greg2600]

This.

Japan had this idea that people in the west sucked ass at video games in comparison to Japanese gamers, and this may be true(see image below,) but kind of disrespectful when you think about it. A lot of games had changes that made them easier for the western market, although few(very few) were much harder in the west(Contra Hard Corps, Ninja Gaiden 3.)

Funny they thought that, because if you check any list of arcade game records, particularly classic, Americans dominate. NAMCO had this big celebration after Billy Mitchell's perfect game in Pac-Man. It's not about difficulty so much. I think Western gamers loved fast moving games, games that are fun first. Japanese wanted to be tested mentally at every path, in a puzzle-solving way. JAP-SMB2 if you ask me, game-wise, is not good. It's not fun, it's a pain in the butt which I would have had zero patience for 25 years ago. I don't think it would have ruined the Mario franchise, but it would have been ugly.

[chrisbid]

does anyone have the nintendo power NES game guide that was published either late 90 or early 91. it had capsule reviews of every licensed NES game, and included scores based on nintendo power's new (at the time) grading system. i dont recall the grading system lasting too long, but i do recall SMB 2 getting a 5.0 in graphics, while SMB 3 got a 4.5.

[wiggyx]

Funny they thought that, because if you check any list of arcade game records, particularly classic, Americans dominate. NAMCO had this big celebration after Billy Mitchell's perfect game in Pac-Man. It's not about difficulty so much. I think Western gamers loved fast moving games, games that are fun first. Japanese wanted to be tested mentally at every path, in a puzzle-solving way. JAP-SMB2 if you ask me, game-wise, is not good. It's not fun, it's a pain in the butt which I would have had zero patience for 25 years ago. I don't think it would have ruined the Mario franchise, but it would have been ugly.

I actually think that it was one of the easier Mario games.